Do local elections foster local democracy? – Party Strategies in the first Elections at the County Level in Kenya

This project aims to examine when local democracy becomes a vehicle for increased accountability and when it does not, by looking at the behavior of the main political actors, the politicians. The strategies they choose to mobilize votes are important keys to whether democratic accountability is distorted or not. Where they choose clientelist or ethnic strategies, promising club goods to certain groups, there is the potential for local governance to be undermined. Where they choose programmatic strategies, promising public goods for all, there is the chance for it to be enhanced. Therefore, this project aims to answer the key research question of what factors explain the different mobilization strategies adopted by politicians in the first local county elections in Kenya.